Give thanks for all the waters that be—
for bays and gulfs and shining seas!
For rivers that flow like meandering snakes,
for wells in the desert and great mountain lakes.
For vastness of oceans unparagoned,
for each fishing hole and tiny frog pond.
For Atlantic, Pacific, and the blue Aegean,
for the Baltic, the Bering, and the Caribbean.
For the Nile, and the Niger and Amazon,
for the Mississippi, Missouri, and Yukon.
For the Rhine and the Rhone and the Rio Grande,
for the Tigris, Euphrates, and sacred Ganges.
For the Thames, the Seine, the Shannon, the Po,
for the Darling, the Uruguay, and the mighty Congo.
May these giving waters—and all the rest
with our careful tending be ever blest!
From “In Nature's Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth,” p. 80